The Queensland Firebirds couldn't get on top of a dominant Swifts today Picture: NSW Swifts/Twitter
The Queensland Firebirds have the bye at just the right time, after a tough loss to the NSW Swifts.
Romelda Aiken failed to fire, with 8 misses in the first half, as the Firebirds accuracy and ball play let them down.
Firebirds Coach Megan Anderson didn’t lay blame at the feet of Aiken and credited her lifting in the second-half after the disappointing first.
“She’s pretty good at getting herself back into it, and she gets most of the rebounds anyway. She was just working herself into it, and she was much better in the second half,” Anderson said.
“It just felt like we were flat, right from the start. It felt like we could build, and we had a few opportunities but didn’t take care of them.”
Despite Kim Ravaillion’s stellar performance, the Firebirds conceded four goals in the last minute of the first half, and never really looked in it after that.
Swifts centre Maddy Proud spoke about Ravaillion’s performance after the game.
“She’s such an unreal player. She’s fit as anything, she runs all day and controls their front line,” Proud said.
“To be able to see her go away, have a baby and come back is great for women in sport. For her to come back in the form she’s in is unbelievable.”
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Despite playing a strong defence and forcing turnovers, Anderson lamented the performance.
“Our turnover conversion rate was better, maybe the best it’s been all year, but then we couldn’t score off the centre pass after to consolidate,” Anderson said.
Going forward, Anderson is hoping for minor improvements across the board.
“We want to make sure we take care of our centre passes, and then convert on our turnovers,” Anderson explained.
We know that when we play good netball, we’re pretty much unstoppable, we’ve just got to make sure that we do that for longer than the opposition.”
Gretel Bueta played well as she continues her return to form after childbirth, but her shooting wasn’t enough today.
The Firebirds have lost two in a row and will return to Queensland for the bye before they host the Giants in two weeks.
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